Soros Foundation pledges $130M in coronavirus relief
George Soros, the billionaire philanthropist and liberal financier, is directing more than $130 million through his foundation to combat the effects of the coronavirus, with $37 million aimed to help at-risk populations in New York City, including undocumented families and lowwage workers.
Soros’ organization, Open Society Foundations, is making two large grants to nonprofits linked to the government of New York City, which is the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in the United States, with more than 10,000 deaths because of the virus.
The first grant will provide $20 million to create an Immigrant Emergency Relief Program in partnership with the city to provide direct, one-time payments to up to 20,000 immigrant families who are excluded from the federal relief program, including people without legal status. Individuals will receive $400 and families will get $1,000.
The fund will be managed by the Mayor’s Fund to Advance New York City, a nonprofit, and the city’s Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs.
“At this moment, we have to understand the human toll of this crisis and move some of our investment into direct humanitarian support,” Patrick Gaspard, the president of the Open Society Foundations, said in an interview.
The foundation is providing $15 million to the nonprofit New York City Fund for Public Schools to support its efforts, including remote learning initiatives and centers to care for the children of workers on the front lines of the crisis. Another $2 million in funding includes grants to help the homeless and efforts to reduce the population of prisons, where the virus has spread aggressively. Gaspard described the $130 million as only an “initial investment” from the foundation.